SoybeanproductioninItaly:agronomy,economics,andpolicyTizianaCentofanti
Dept.ofEnvironmentalSciencesandPolicy,CentralEuropeanUniversity([email protected])
WhyItalyisthelargestproducerofsoyainEU?Since1940therehavebeenattemptstointroducethesoybeaninItalybuttheresultshavebeendisappointing.In1980thesituationchangeddramatically.TheEEChadbecomecompletelydependentonimportsofplant-basedproteinflourofwhichsoybeanrepresentedabout60%.Inaddition,asurplusofgrainwasbeingproducedwithconsequencesonprices.Inthiscontext,promotingsoybeanproductionbecamenotonlydesirablebutvital.Inaddition,Italianfarmerswerelookingforanalternativecropforrotationsthatwouldgeneraterevenues(traditionalbeet-wheatrotation);alfalfawasbecominglessprofitable.Moreimportantly,theItalianprocessingindustry,capableofprocessingmorethan2milliontonsofseeds,wasinterestedinnationalsoybeanproduction(Ferruzzi-Montedison).Thealignmentoftheseinterestscreatedtheconditionsnecessaryforthetesting,introduction,andpopularizationofsoybeaninItaly.
WhyisItalythelargestproducerofsoybeaninEurope?
Agronomyofthefarm(croprotationand
diversification,improvedvarieties)
Europeanandnational
agriculturalpolicy(CAP,economicincentives)
Environmentalconditions
(Temperature,rainfall,soiltype)
Historicalcontextknow-how(processingindustry,
technologicaladvancements)
Figure1.Second-harvestedsoybeanseededonwheatstubblewiththeKvernelandOptimaHDe-driveseeder.Source:http://www.ilnuovoagricoltore.it/.
Figure2.Soybeanproduction(1000t)inItalianregionsfrom2012to2017.Source:Eurostat.
Table1.HarvestedproductionandcultivationareaofsoyainEuropeancountries(average2015-2017).Source:Eurostat.
Harvestedproduction(1000tonnes)
Cultivationarea(1000ha)
EU-28 2440,1 892,9Bulgaria 40,3 34,5CzechRepublic 20,2 12,3Germany 19,2 8,0Greece 4,4 2,0Spain 4,1 1,3France 334,2 122,0Croatia 196,4 88,9Italy 11170,0 309,0Lithuania 1,8 2,6Hungary 145,9 72,0Austria 136,2 56,9Poland 8,8 6,2Romania 262,0 128,1Slovenia 4,7 1,7Slovakia 62,1 43,4Switzerland 4,1 1,7Albania 0,5 0,2Serbia 454,4 184,8Turkey 150,0 37,0BosniaandHerzegovina
10,4 7,0
HowissoybeanincludedintheCAP?Greeningpayment+rotation(cropdiversification)=pairedpaymentabout54-97€ha-1.Asarule,adiversifyingcropispresentinthefieldfromApril1sttoJune9th;soybeanfitstheschedule.ThepaymentforsoyaisdestinedtonorthernItaly,southernItalyreceivesgreeningpaymentsforvegetableproteinsotherthansoybean(Fig2).Thereisanincreaseddemandfornon-GMOsoyaintheEU.
Agronomyofthefarm.Improvedvarieties,clearagronomicadvantagesofsoybeanbecauseofNfixation,rotationcroponstriptilling(Fig.1)forcostreductionandreducedneedofplanthealthinterventions.InNorthernItalysoyaisirrigated.BreedingfornewimprovedvarietiesoccursinFriuliandLombardia.
Italianprocessingindustry.1980-GruppoFerruzziprovidedtechnicalassistancetofarmersandpurchasedsoybeanataguaranteedfixedpricepriortoseeding.Soybeanproductionareaincreasednearlytenfoldin1983andthenby37%in1984.Since2008-SipcamandCortalExtrasoyfunded“SoiaItalia”anon-profittoorganizeandsupportfarmersandtoguidethemthroughagronomicandmarketdecisions.
TheEuropeansoyadeclarationisaveryimportantpolicyactionfortheincreaseofsoybeanproduction.